| Anne's and Andi's Cape Breton Adventures |
 |
| During the finale when all the MacNeils plus a MacPhee was on stage, Kyle couldn't remember the name of a tune. "So Bruce, what WAS the name of that tune?" Everyone had a BIG laugh over that one! |
| After a brief intermission, Kyle and Sheumas played some foot stomping tunes as well as a couple slow airs for an hour or so. Then it was Sheumas, Kyle, Bruce and Monica for the finale. What an enjoyable evening it was! Andi and I both had our fiddles with us and Andi gave me the task to talk to Kyle and corner him while she went out to get the fiddles so he could autograph them both. I asked Kyle if the Barras would be playing in Philly anytime soon and he informed me they should have been in Philly playing at the Folk Festival as we spoke. But Lucy is pregnant and due soon so they declined to travel right now. I am so glad I didn't miss them by being in Cape Breton while they were in Philly! That would have been a tragedy. Maybe next year they'll make it. I hope so. When Kyle saw my fiddle, he asked, “Who has signed it? Natalie... Buddy... Bob Hallett... Bob Hallett???? Bob Hallett signed it before ME?” Hahahahaha! I told him if the Barras had ever come down Philly way, he could have signed it before Bob, ‘cause I didn’t get Bob's signature till March, the slippery devil! Kyle was nice. I would have paid admission to see THIS tonight – Andi asked Kyle to sign her fiddle. Not only that, but she asked if she could give him a hug! And she did! And he gave her one as well. Never in my life did I think I’d see Andi do that! Will wonders never cease? |
| We slept the night in the Skye Motel in Port Hawksbury and took off the next morning for Halifax. In Halifax we were supposed to meet Andi’s Stitchery Group and later meet Molly from the GBS chatroom and Stacy again. Andi had left some stuff at Stacy’s and she asked her to meet up with us and Molly for dinner. We didn’t have much of a problem finding the supermarket where the group met and Andi went in to meet them all. I was trying to get ahold of Vic and Molly and get a room at Dalhousie University for the night. The phone card wasn’t working right and I kept having to put quarters in. The registration person for Dalhousie was very pleasant and put me at ease about it. I just didn’t realize how many people do this – stay at the University. We stayed with the Stitchery group until 4:30 and it was nice to see Andi in her element. She was really quite at ease. We drove down to the harbour and parked the car downtown. Andi went in the Tourist place and asked about Internet access. They directed her to a place around the corner. I was looking for a MAC machine that worked. Didn’t find one. We walked down to the waterfront to meet Molly and Stacy. Where to meet them? Molly told us to meet her where “the guy was throwing balls into toilets seats!” She meant it too! We found her and Stacy and Linda near the toilet seat carnival game.. Ended up eating at the Lower Deck. I didn’t even realize it was there! Duh! I have new-found respect for the b’ys who played the Lower Deck so many times. The crowd was brutal and noisy. No wonder GBS puts on the best live show, engaging the audience as well as they do. If they could survive in that atmosphere, they can survive anywhere. |
 |
| As I looked around the pub, I was tickled to see a table full of people who would not have known each other if it hadn’t been for the Great Big Sea Chatroom. We were from 2 different provinces and 2 different states, friends because of a wonderful band. After eating at the Lower Deck, we bid adieu to Stacy and Linda and walked around with Molly for a while. It was nice to have the time to walk and talk and sit and talk and talk and talk. Her folks went around the entire area twice, waiting for us to be finished chatting. It’s been a year since I saw Molly in Seattle for Bumbershoot Festival – another place where I met a slew of online GBS fans. By the time we got to Dalhousie, we were very tired and I was a bit worried because I hadn’t been able to get ahold of Vic on the IRLP radio. While I was registering us inside Vic was calling me and I got there just before he switched it off thanks to Andi’s frantic, “It’s Vic! Hurry up!!!” Felt much better after I got a chance to talk to him and we went in to plop our stuff in our dorm room. You know, I was so happy I lived at home while I was doing my undergrad work. Dorm life is not for me. I don’t think I would have enjoyed living in a dorm with the noise of your hallmates and the communal bathroom and no fans or air conditioning. We had brought the hot weather with us from Cape Breton unfortunately. BUT – one great thing about Dalhousie was that with the room came Internet access 24/7. What a relief to be able to sit as long as it took to collect email, answer email and surf the Net a bit. I think we stayed up till about 2 AM surfing the Net. Slept pretty well except for a few times when Andi’s dreaming about God-knows-what caused her to scratch the wall like she was trying to escape something. Breakfast was not porridge. sigh Already missing Gaelic College too much. After breakfast, we plopped our stuff in the van and took off for the Cape Breton Highlands – where I first discovered the joys of Celtic music and Great Big Sea. I promised Andi she would not regret the all-day tour through the highlands and she didn’t. |
 |
| We hurried as fast as we could to get to Cape Breton and the special feeling it held for us. The temptation was great to stop and hang out in Baddeck and or St. Ann’s and temptation won out. We stopped to tour the Alexander Graham Bell Museum there before continuing our Highlands trek. It was Aviation Day at the museum and they had all sorts of things going on. That museum has one of the BEST interactive kids sections I have ever seen. Kids there today were making rockets and tetrahedral kites. The rockets went far and the kites really flew! There was also a fiddler and a keyboard accompanist there entertaining the visitors. What a treat! On our way, Andi saw a river otter doing the back float in the river and I stopped so she could get a photo. He obliged us by remaining that way till Andi could snap this photo. Didn’t see any moose this time, but that was a thrill seeing the otter. |
| Andi’s been dying to go swimming again and got her wish along the Cabot Trail. This Trail is probably the most photographed trail of all of them on the isle of Cape Breton. Postcards abound with the view of the narrow road clinging to the cliffs rising from the sea. More about that later but first Andi’s swimming adventure. We stopped at Ingonish Beach to put feet in the water but the water was filled with jellyfish. This is what happens in New Jersey in August but I have never seen so many jellyfish in one place as I did that day. Andi did eventually get to go swimming in a cove down the road apiece. She wasn’t the only one there, either. |
 |
 |
| Kite flying at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum - the kid who made the kite is on the other end |
| Ingonish Beach jellyfish |
 |
| Ingonish Beach |
 |
 |
| While Andi was swimming, I was snapping photos withmy new camera. Here is the cove at Ingonish and two seagulls who shared the beach with Andi for a while. |
 |
| Ingonish |
| Ingonish gulls |
| Home |
| Cabot Trail at Sunset |
 |